Saturday, March 15, 2008

Digger Cashes-In For Fox Network

Remember how much effort our friends at Fox Sports put into naming the new animated gopher Digger? Now we know the reason why. This from the FoxSports.com website.

Due to high demand, "Digger," the popular cartoon gopher of Gopher Cam fame, is now featured on t-shirts. FOX Sports, in conjunction with Chase Authentics, has designed a t-shirt for Digger's growing legion of fans. The Digger t-shirt will be widely available for sale at trackside merchandise rigs all season long beginning this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, and from a variety of web sites, including www.FOXSports.com on MSN; www.goracin.com; www.speedtv.com; and www.dwstore.com. The high grade shirts, which come in both youth and adult sizes, are priced from $15 to $21.50. Additional apparel and novelty items, including baseball caps and plush toys, are expected to join the Digger line in the near future.

Are you going to get your Digger T-shirt? The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Simply click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the directions. Thanks for stopping by.

as far as "might be a hit with the kiddies": i have 2 young (7 and 4) nascar buddies and they would never, ever wear that shirt! maybe someone else's young fans might, but not these guys! it's their driver shirts or nothing on race day.

my biggest fear is that i'll see it on someone at dover and be unable to stop laughing long enough to watch the race!

JD, I don't mean to be rude but, I don't know why you would be confused. When we first saw "digger" on FOX a good majority of Daly Planet users had negative comments about that camera angle. I think this just added to the fire.

I wonder if Fox thought of this t-shirt idea this past week, or if they were planning this all along when they were broadcasting the Daytona 500? If so, they contrived to use that animation everytime they went to the gopher cam. LOL

hey bobby? even taking what you say at face value -- that a true nascar fan would buy a fox t-shirt in order to help fox pay its rights fees! -- the issue is that damn gopher! stupid marketing trick and definitely suspect that it received sooo much promotion prior to the "naming of the gopher" episode. now, a t-shirt.

well, all i can say is: if fox needs to help pay for its rights fees, this ain't the way to do it!

If I had a child I might buy them a Digger shirt or possibly a gag gift for the Nascar fan who has everything. I bet there a lots of people out there that will they are not the people who post on this site. Hey Red maybe I'll see you at Dover I will be the one NOT in a Digger shirt

I guess I'll have to take the hit and admit that I see nothing wrong with Fox selling the Digger shirts. I'm not going to buy one, but if someone thinks that it is a cool use of technology or likes the little critter, I have no problem with it and would definitely not belittle or criticise them if I saw them at a race with the shirt on.

I have enough real freakin' gophers digging up my front lawn, so no way on God's green earth do I want another one, real or otherwise, in my life. If Fox ever runs out of gophers, my boxer, Jake, would be happy to provide Fox with as many as they want. Since he loves bringing me his lawn conquests, I would be happy to box them up and overnight them to the Hollywood Hotel.

If Digger is going to be a kid-friendly part of their souvenir collection, do it.

A nice little mascot that kids can associate and have fun is not a bad thing, considering too many times we've seen the "adult" content of too many television shows in the past.

After all, this is supposed to be family-friendly, and having something for the kids isn't a bad thing for anyone to consider. I'd rather have kids playing with Digger than some of the smut I've seen on F1 grids.

If the driver's union issue includes TV at any point, I would be happy to include it for comments.

Right now, it is just kind of a knee-jerk reaction to the Atlanta tire problems.

Drivers and their teams are independent contractors, and under no obligation to show-up for the next event. This simple fact has always slowly helped the union issue to fade away over the last ten years or so.